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Field athlete topples 61-year-old shot put record

September 11th, 2017

by Joshua Booth

NORTH NEWTON, KAN. – A Bethel College field athlete has broken a record that stood for more than twice his own lifetime.

Kyle Wilson, junior from California City, California, threw the shot put 15.87 meters (52 feet, 1 inch), to break a record that Don Penner set in 1956, the longest standing school record in track and field until then.

Wilson’s heave came April 8 during the Friends University Invitational meet in Wichita. He placed 2nd in the event.

It was also good enough to give Wilson an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama, May 25-27, and (along with a 2nd-place finish in the discus) earned him Men’s Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week honors in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference.

“Kyle has been throwing very well in practice and just not converting on meet day,” said Threshers Head Coach Jeff Hoskisson. “Today he put everything together. It is a record that he has been targeting all spring. Getting the record and qualifying for nationals really made it a special day for Kyle.”

Also at the Friends Invitational, senior Rashé Boynton, Miami, achieved her career best time in the 100-meter dash, 12.17 seconds, which make her a provisional qualifier for the National Championships.

“Rashé has been working very hard since January for this to happen,” Hoskisson said. “She ran an outstanding race and was rewarded with a qualifying mark.”

Bethel hosts its own invitational meet April 15, with field events starting at noon and the running portion of the competition beginning around 3 p.m.

Bethel College is the only private college in Kansas listed in the Forbes.com analysis of top colleges and universities, the Washington Monthly National Universities-Liberal Arts section and the National Liberal Arts College category of U.S. News & World Report, all for 2016–17. The four-year liberal arts college is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu.